Gusset bag with closure



r h 1970' E. KUGLER ETAL 3,502,258

GUSSET BAG WITH CLOSURE Filed June 27, 1968 INVENTORS [$444 Janka 55 M $1 0M United States Patent 3,502,258 GUSSET BAG WITH CLOSURE Emanuel Kugler, Lawrence, and Edna Lowenberg, Brooklyn, N .Y., assignors t0 Emanuel Kugler, Lawrence, N.Y. Filed June 27, 1968, Ser. No. 740,699

Int. Cl. B65d 33/06 US. Cl. 229-54 2 Claims ABSTRACT- OF THE DISCLOSURE A plastic bag having mounted in its upper opening a cardboard folding member which primarily serves as a bag closure when folded into an operative closed position relative to said upper opening and, in an operative open position relative to said upper opening, also doubles as a convenient carrying handlefor the bag.

The present invention relates to plastic bags and more particularly to improvements for this type packaging which contribute to its convenience and advantageous use both as anoriginal product package and subsequently as a reusable package.

Despite the popular acceptance and extensive use of plastic bags as packaging for diverse products, there is nevertheless considerable effort expended to continually make improvements therein, particularly in connection with reuse of the bag. Thus, after the bag has served its primary function as an original product package, to contribute to reuse thereof the bag may be provided with selective bag closure, as for example a reversely foldable flap foldable over the bag opening or a flap selectively engageable with an adhesive deposit. The foregoing and other illustrative closure structure achieve selective closing of the bag during reuse, but in many instances do not justify the increase in the production cost of the bag which is entailed. This increase in cost, while unavoidable, would however be justified if the resulting structure achieved more than merely service as a selective bag closure.

Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved plastic bag having significant reuse value overcoming the foregoing and other shortcomings of the prior art. Specifically, it is an object to provide a plastic bag with a folding cardboard closure which also serves as a carrying handle for the bag.

A plastic bag demonstrating objects and advantages of the present invention includes a top gusset construction in which there is adhesively adhered a pair of facing cardboard walls, the upper portions of which have delineated therein a pair of flaps which fold, from an open position in the plane of each wall, into an overlapping position closing the bag opening. In the open position of the flaps, there are aligning hand grip openings therein which convert the closure into a convenient carrying handle for the bag.

The above brief description, as well as further objects, features and advantages of the present invention, will be more fully appreciated by reference to the following detailed description of a presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiment in accordance with the present invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a plastic bag having a combination closure member and carrying handle according to the present invention, a lower portion of the bag being broken away to illustrate details of the bag bottom product-loading opening;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view, on an enlarged scale and in section taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1, illustrating use of the bag as an original product package;

FIG. 3 is a sectioned elevational view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating the bag after the rupturing of the upper gusset thereof producing a product-removal opening;

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of the upper portion of the bag illustrating the flaps serving as the bag closure in their closed position; and

FIG. 5 is a partial elevational view, in section taken on line 55 of FIG. 4, illustrating further structural details of the flaps.

Reference is now made to the drawings wherein there is shown a plastic bag 10 having an upper closure member, generally designated 12, which, as illustrated in FIG. 1, has an open position and, as illustrated in FIG. 4, a closed position. This function of the bag closure 12 is subsequently explained in greater detail. At this convenient point, however, it should be noted that in the open or FIG. 1 position of the closure 12, a pair of openings 12a align with each other and, in an obvious manner, effectively convert the closure 12 into a carrying handle for the bag 10.

Turning now to the structural details of the bag 10, the same includes a front wall 10a and a rear wall 10b attached to each other along opposite side welds 10c, 10d to thereby define an internal bag enclosure which initially, at least in the embodiment illustrated herein, has a bottom product-loading opening 102. That is, as best under stood from the comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2 and in accordance with general practice, a product P is adapted to be loaded within the bag 10 through the bottom opening 10e and the opening thereafter closed with a heat seal 10].

Bag 10, at its upper end, includes a gusset 14 which, as generally understood, is comprised of a pair of facing gusset walls 14a, 14b having an interposed operative position between the upper portions of the front and rear Walls 10a, 10b, each wall being bounded by upper fold lines 140 and the single, lower fold line 14a along which, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 2, the gusset walls 14a and 14b are joined to each other. Disposed within the gusset 14 is the previously referred to closure 12 having the hand grip openings 12a which, as already noted, serve the auxiliary function of a bag carrying handle and the primary function of selectively closing the bag, during reuse thereof, all as will now be described in detail.

Closure 12 is preferably fabricated of cradboard or similar flexible material and includes a pair of facing walls 12b and joined along opposite sides by an adhesive seam or some other appropriate connection. The walls 12b, 120, along their bottom edge, bound a bottom openlng 12e which serves as an extension to the prodcut-removal opening 14e which, as clearly shown in FIG. 3, is produced when the portion of the gusset walls 14a, 14b adjacent the fold line 14d is ruptured preparatory to removing the product P from the bag. Thus, the product P is removable through the product-removal opening 14e, through the bottom opening 12e and through the opening between the closure walls 12b, 120 until final removal through the upper opening 12 bounded by the upper edges of the closure walls 12b, 120 which extend beyond the bag upper edges 140.

The manner in which the closure 12 efiectively serves to selectively close the bag 10 can best be understood by a comparison of FIG. 3 and FIGS. 4, 5 in which the closure is respectively shown in its open position (FIG. 3) and in its closed position (FIGS. 4, 5). The upper closure wall edges, herein more specifically designated 12g, are provided with a gradual convex shape and each has complementary thereto a reverse gradual concave shaped score line 12h whereby, in each of the closure walls 12b, 120, there is delineated between the upper edge 12g and score line 12h a closing flap 12 which is foldable towards the other flap 12 More particularly, each flap 12 is foldable from its open position in which it lies in the plane of each of the closure walls 12b, 120, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, into its closed position extending substantially perpendicular to such plane, as illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5. Thus, the flaps 121' are each foldable along a fold line created by the score lines 12a into an overlapping condition, as illustrated in FIG. 5, wherein each upper convexly shaped edge 12g is moved into a position adjacent the concavely shaped score line 12h and the closure 12 is consequently projected into a three-dimensional shape in which the overlapping fiaps 12j serve as a closure for the bag.

As may perhaps best be understood from the consideration of FIG. 5, the previously noted hand grip openings 12a are advantageously located off center and towards the upper portion of each flap 12 so that while these openings align in the open position of the flaps, as clearly illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, they do not align in the overlapping closed position, as illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5. This, of course, preserves the functioning of the closure 12 as a means for selectively closing the bag during reuse thereof.

A latitude of modification, change and substitution is intended in the foregoing disclosure and in some instances some features of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features.

What is claimed is:

1. A flexible bag formed of a thin, flexible, thermoplastic web material comprising:

front and rear bag walls joined together at their side edges and along their upper edges to define a productcontaining bag enclosure, said front and rear walls having unattached bottom edges defining a bottom product loading opening;

an upper gusset formed of said web material having front and rear gusset walls attached at their upper edges to the upper edges of said front and rear bag walls, respectively, and attached to each other at a lower gusset fold line;

the improvement comprising a flexible, reusable closure formed of stiff board material secured to said Web material at said upper gusset including:

front and rear closure members secured to the inner faces of said front and rear gusset walls,

respectively, and extending upwardly beyond said upper edges'of said front and rear bag walls;

said front and rear closure members having lower edges above the level of said lower gusset fold line;

each of said front and rear closure members having similar curved fold lines formed therein with the lowermost point of said fold lines located above the upper edges of said gusset and bag walls;

the upper edges of each of said closure members being convex and coextensive;

the portion of said closure members between said curved fold lines and said convex upper edges defining closure end faces which coextensively overlie each other when said closure members are folded at said curved fold lines;

each of said end faces having formed their finger openings at a location above the centers of said end faces; said finger openings being in alignment when said closure members are not folded and being out of alignment when said closure members are folded; said closure members closing said product-containing bag enclosure with access through said finger openings being blocked when said end closure members are folded along said curved fold lines.

2. A flexible bag in accordance with claim 1 wherein said curved fold lines are concave with their ends intersecting the ends of the upper convex edges of said closure members.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,255,951 6/1966 Kay 229-54 3,282,493 11/1966 Kamins et al. 229-62 3,366,312 1/ 1968 Lowenberg et al 229-62 DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. ISO-1.7; 229-62 

